Friday, September 4, 2009

Canadian Women's Open Friday: How Tough Is Na Yeon Choi?

Take a look at Na Yeon Choi's scorecard when you get a chance. Just as she has several times in the last few events, this Super Soph got off on the wrong foot at the Canadian Women's Open, putting her 45-event made-cut streak in jeopardy right from the get-go with a bogey-bogey-double-par-bogey start. Even though she battled back to finish at +3 yesterday, she bogeyed her 1st 2 holes on the front today to fall back to +5, far below the projected cut line. Well, what has she done since then but start a bogey-free streak of 11 holes and counting, rattling off 3 birdies over her last 5 holes on the front and eagling the par-5 12th? So she's back to E with 5 holes to play, T53 right now. She doesn't have much margin for error, as +1 is T71 and +2 is T87 at the moment. But how cool would it be for her to come back from the brink yet again?

I'll be using this post to keep track of cut-line doings today at Priddis Greens. Stay tuned!

[Update 1 (3:11 pm): Lots of people are making big runs at the cut line today, but Michelle Wie will need to make more birdies as she closes out her round on the front to join them (she's +3 overall with 4 left to play). She could take a lesson from her pal Christina Kim, whose bogey-free run is 19 holes and counting and has fought back to -1 for the tournament (T33 right now) after going +4 through her 1st 13 holes yesterday. She's tied right now with Karine Icher, who birdied 4 of her last 6 holes on the front to post a bounceback 67. Shi Hyun Ahn's own 67 today was an 8-shot improvement on Thursday's results and puts her inside the cut line at T51. There are others whose fates are still in their hands. More on them later.]

[Update 2 (3:24 pm): Christina Kim's 6th birdie of the day on the par-5 5th brings her to -2 overall and T21 right now! Let's see if she can keep the pedal to the metal. There have been a lot of birdies to close out the front this week.]

[Update 3 (3:59 pm): Kim's 20-hole bogey-free streak came to a screeching halt with her 2nd-straight bogey on the par-4 7th. She's tied with Choi at -1 now.]

[Update 4 (4:03 pm): On the wrong side of the cut line, 69s by Eun-Hee Ji and Michelle Wie will most likely be too little, too late, after their 75 and 76 opening rounds, respectively--unless the winds really come up and everyone on the course a little ahead of them blows up horribly. Ji bogeyed 2 of her last 4 holes--that's gotta hurt.]

[Update 5 (11:56 pm): Contrast Ji's fortunes with Danielle Downey's--the latter went -3 over her last 7 holes to get to -1, right where Ji was before her unfortunate collapse. Maybe there is a U.S. Women's Open curse? If 5 players had done 1 shot worse among those at +1, Ji would have made the cut. Moira Dunn was one of those players who made the cut on the number, thanks to only bogeying the 17th down the stretch....]

No comments: